One major dilemma plaguing farmers who raise livestock and/or poultry is the ability to efficiently neutralize and dispose of animal waste. Left untreated, animal waste is a significant health and environmental hazard. Animal waste creates a public nuisance because of its odor, and improper disposal is associated with significant problems such as water contamination.
In the past, animal waste was typically collected and channeled to a pond or lagoon. Before being emptied into the lagoon, the animal waste may or may not have been separated via mechanical means in order to remove various particulate matter such as sediment. Once fed to the pond or lagoon, the animal waste came in contact with various microorganisms and underwent biodegradation.
Prior art systems, however, have various deficiencies and drawbacks. In particular, these systems did little to initially improve the odor of the waste. Typically, odors originating from the animal waste were improved or reduced only after a substantial amount of time.
Further, these systems tended to work very slowly and would completely fail under some environmental conditions. For instance, under stagnant and hot conditions, the pond or lagoon would fail to adequately biodegrade the waste, overloading the system and creating a very unfavorable situation. Continued deposit of waste into the overloaded system would result in reduced growth or death of the microorganisms responsible for biodegradation.
As such, a need currently exists for an improved system and process for treating animal waste. In particular, a need currently exists for a process that can safely treat animal waste very rapidly to immediately reduce or otherwise improve the odor that emanates from the waste. A need also exists for a system and process that can very quickly reduce BOD, COD, total bacterial count, and the total coliform count present in animal waste.